


[He didn't know what she would do...]

by bamelot89



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Cannibalism, F/M, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-17
Updated: 2014-03-17
Packaged: 2018-01-16 03:18:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1329925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bamelot89/pseuds/bamelot89
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>just a barely mediocre one-shot, post 4x13, maybe some will enjoy it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	[He didn't know what she would do...]

**Author's Note:**

> I saw a post that mentioned the theory that Beth had been taken by “The Hunters”. (I don’t have the link or remember where I saw it.) Now, I’ve never read the graphic novels, but I looked into it and found out they were cannibals. That grabbed my interest, so I’ve written a thing. Also, somewhat inspired by that scene in The Road. (You know the one I’m talking about, and if you don’t, go watch that movie right now.)

He didn’t know what she would do if their positions were switched.  If she was the one left behind, if he was the one who’d been snatched from her.  Then again, if roles were flipped the situation would be completely different.  Whoever was in the car wouldn’t have been able to grab him so easily, and even if they did, the group he was with now would have killed her.  But he knew what he would do; he was doing it right now.  He was putting one foot in front of the other, remembering what their conversation from just a few days before.

“Why hurt yourself when you can hurt other people?”  After a night of letting that set in, he snuck off.  To Hell with them.  He moved fast, retracing his steps back to the crossroads.  Them kidnapping her told him they probably had a place to keep her which meant they’d have to have a place to stop, somewhere permanent.  He was going to find it.  He was going to find it if it took him three months.  And if Beth was dead by then, he’d kill the people that let her die—or killed her themselves.

He went right first.  And then he took another right, and one more right.  He ran into a few straggler walkers, but didn’t get into any real trouble.  He got lucky and found the car alongside the road as dawn was breaking.  It was completely empty, nothing left inside—not even the keys.  If they took the keys they probably had more gas somewhere, likely nearby.  Or maybe this was just where they kept the vehicle.  Either the way, they couldn’t be far.  They might be farther down the road, or they might be somewhere in the woods.  Without knowing which way to go, he crouched down in the ditch and waited for them to return to the car.  If they didn’t come back before nightfall, he’d traipse into the woods.  After the rain, there wouldn’t be much—if anything—to follow, but he wasn’t willing to waste more than a day sitting around waiting for something.

He couldn’t count the hours by the sun because it was still gray and overcast, but as the shadows lengthened and world around darkened, he grew impatient.  When his wait was over and no one had come back to the car, he stood and went into the woods.  With no footprints to go off of, he did what he could with a few broken branches and an occasional imprint too deep for the rain to wash away.  Once or twice there were giant slicks, which meant she’d been struggling.  Struggling meant she was alive, and that was good.  That was the best he dared to hope for. 

It was nearly pitch black when he heard the sound of approaching voices and he quickly moved off the path, waiting for them to pass.  There were maybe three of them, and they were loud.  After they’d passed, he followed their fresh tracks back to a log cabin in a small clearing.  With no further cover, he crept to one of the side windows and peeked in.  Everything was dark, and as he circled the building fully, he saw no sources of light from inside.  Back at the front door, he turned the nob and slowly pushed it open, groaning and creaking all the way.  Nothing reacted to the sound, live or dead, and he took a step inside.  The first room he took an interest in was one filled with weapons, his knife among them.  He picked it up off the table and continued.  The “kitchen” was what he found most disturbing.  On the counter was a pile of raw meat and bone, but it wasn’t animal.  There were finger bones and ribs and, to top it all off, a skull.  He left the room in a hurry, grabbed a couple guns on his way out, and noticed a pile of clothes on the floor he must’ve missed before.  He wasn’t stupid enough to pretend he didn’t recognize the top, the boots, the jeans, the damn necklace.  She wasn’t inside, and no way had that been her in the kitchen.  Three people…three people couldn’t have eaten that much, not in the amount of time they’d been separated for.  And with no fridge it didn’t make sense for them…it didn’t make sense for them to do it all at once.  The meat would spoil.  He hated that he was thinking the things he was, but he reminded himself this was a good sign, if that was even possible at this point.  Before he went back outside, he grabbed a flashlight off the table.

There must be a place nearby, or a cellar, or…there it was.  Behind the house, an underground cellar.  Shit, but it was locked.  He didn’t dare risk shooting it off, so he ran back to the house, careful to keep an eye open for the returning bunch.  Crowbar, pliers, anything he could use he looked for.  He lucked out and found a crowbar in the weapons room and hurried back outside.

First things first, he hit the wood door a couple of times, listening for anything.  Not hearing anything, he pried the lock open and tossed it aside.  He opened the door and still nothing responded.  Clicking on the flashlight, he shown it down into the dark.  It was a surprisingly spacious area and at first he didn’t think anything was down there, but after a second the light found her, lying on her stomach side, hands tied behind her back.  _She was alive, she was alive, she was alive._

He ran down the stairs knelt beside her.  He should’ve grabbed her clothes, but now that he was here he had to get her out first.  She began to stir as he untied her hands, and when she realized there was someone touching her she began to violently shove him away.  Thinking about what they could have done to get this kind of reaction, to put this look on her face was enough to make him want to stab them until there was no flesh left to bury a knife into.

“Beth—Beth, hey—”

“ _Daryl_?—Oh my God.”  She curled in on herself and covered her mouth.  Daryl looked over his shoulder to see what she’d seen and tried to hide his reaction.  There was a boy, age hard to say with the state he was in.  He didn’t have any legs, and he only had one arm.  When he opened his mouth no sound came out.  He was working on dragging what was left of his body towards them, but the worst part was that he wasn’t a walker.  He was still human.  Eyes still brown, dilating in the flashlight’s beam, facial muscles still moving with emotion.  Daryl had seen a lot of fucked up shit, but he could hardly bring himself to look at that boy. 

“Beth, c’mon, we gotta go.”

She didn’t object, only whimpered, and let him carry her out of the cellar. 

“Wait here,” he said setting her down in the grass.”

Quick as he could, he grabbed her clothes from inside and closed the door behind him.  She was still right where he left her and he lifted her into his arms and carried her into the cover of the trees.  Once they were out of sight of the clearing, he set her down and passed her clothes to her.  She didn’t react, just held them in her hands and stared back the way they came, expression saying she could break any second.  He took the clothes gently back from her and made and attempt to put a shirt over her head, but she jerked away from him.

“I can do it myself.”

“I don’t know when they’re coming back—”

One sob escaped her throat in the time it took her to put on her underwear, pants, shirt, and boots.

He held her necklace out to her and she tossed it into a bush.  She glared at him, eyes hate filled and angry, before crumbling to her knees.  He was at her side in an instant, and she didn’t push him away this time.

“I’ve got you, sweetheart,” he said.  “But we’ve gotta get going.”

She buried her face in his neck for a brief moment.  “I’m sorry,” she said into his skin.

“You ain’t got nothing to apologize for.”

He helped her up and they made their way out of the woods, Beth never letting go of Daryl’s hand.

When they finally stopped for a short break, she said, “I told you you’d miss me.”

“Yeah, well I don’t plan on missing you again,” he said as he passed his knife back to her.

She gave him a tiny smile, and they were off again.


End file.
